Spoilers Section 31: Control by David Mack Review Thread

Discussion in 'Trek Literature' started by Defcon, Mar 17, 2017.

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Rate Section 31: Control

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  1. Markonian

    Markonian Fleet Admiral Moderator

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    Aye, there's a dangling thread from the hostile encounter between Titan and an Andorian battlecruiser. (TTN novel: Fallen Gods)
     
  2. Nyotarules

    Nyotarules Vice Admiral Moderator

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    Perhaps Vulcans en masse follow the teachings of Surak in the same manner that Christian humans en masse follow the teachings of Christ, or Islamic humans follow Islam....inconsistently and in a diverse manner and not monolithic.
    Consider Trump claims to be a Christian....
    ISIS claim to be followers of Islam.....
    The IRA were mainly Roman Catholics...
    etc etc etc
     
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  3. Nyotarules

    Nyotarules Vice Admiral Moderator

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    The AI should run for President......It would win.
     
  4. Nyotarules

    Nyotarules Vice Admiral Moderator

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    Well if Janeway can come back from the dead anything is possible in the ST novelverse
     
  5. Nyotarules

    Nyotarules Vice Admiral Moderator

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    Perhaps in A less perfect union Dr Iverson (?) never got the investment from Starfleet to expand his little AI scheme or his divorce left him bankrupt paying alimony to all his ex wives????
     
    Last edited: Jun 2, 2017
  6. Nyotarules

    Nyotarules Vice Admiral Moderator

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    So this all happens before Prime Spock disappears down a black hole. So should Prime warn the others in the JJVerse about Control and her dodgy sister Urei?
     
  7. Sci

    Sci Fleet Admiral Admiral

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    Goodness, there's a lot to unpack here.

    First off, Eddington's argument was not that the Federation is a fascist state -- his argument was that the Federation is a sort of cultural imperialist state: "Why is the Federation so obsessed about the Maquis? We've never harmed you, and yet we're constantly arrested and charged with terrorism. Starships chase us through the Badlands and our supporters are harassed and ridiculed. Why? Because we've left the Federation, and that's the one thing you can't accept. Nobody leaves paradise. Everyone should want to be in the Federation. Hell, you even want the Cardassians to join. You're only sending them replicators because one day they can take their rightful place on the Federation Council. You know, in some ways you're worse than the Borg. At least they tell you about their plans for assimilation. You're more insidious. You assimilate people and they don't even know it."

    Secondly: At no point does the Federation in any way equal a fascist state, even by the most disapproving interpretation of Uraei's action's. Fascism is characterized by veneration of the dominant ethno-nationalist identity within the polity, and by the demonization and oppression of minority identities in the polity. In its most famous German manifestation, of course, that meant equating ethnic Germans with ideas of genetic superiority, of a natural right to enslave and dominate others -- "the Master Race" -- and seeking to blame Jewish people for all of Germany's ills and to exterminate Jews, Poles, Roma, and other ethnic minorities (along side political dissidents such as socialists, communists, social democrats, and even just regular old liberal democrats). It also, of course, is accompanied by the so-called Führerprinzip, the idea that "'the Führer's [leader's] word is above all written law' and that governmental policies, decisions, and offices ought to work toward the realization of this end… the practice of dictatorship within the ranks of a political party itself…"

    As Wikipedia puts it:

    Now, one could certainly argue that with Uraei active within its territory, the Federation had unknowingly become a surveillance state. And it's pretty clear that Uraei took unilateral action on a number of occasions that resulted in profound sentient rights abuses. But to say that the Federation with Uraei was a fascist state was simply not the case; throughout its entire history, the Federation was characterized by ethnic, linguistic, cultural, religious, and species diversity; by competitive democratic elections; by a constitutional governance; by a set of enumerated sentient rights and limitations on government powers; etc. Did the Federation always live up to its code? No. But there is a profound and vast difference between a constitutional liberal democracy that occasionally deviates from its ideals, and a fascist state.

    Your comparison of Section 31's relationship to Starfleet and the Federation to Hydra's relationship to SHIELD and the United States in Captain America: The Winter Soldier is quite apt.

    But.

    It's important to understand that neither one was actually running their host organizations. Section 31 and Uraei did not run Starfleet or the Federation. Hydra did not run SHIELD or the United States government. They had infiltrated their host systems, but they did not control them.

    Exactly. Vulcans have always had a diversity of views about what it actually means to be "logical."

    Another possibility: Perhaps in that timeline, Paxton began to suspect that he was being monitored in some way (even if he didn't know about Uraei specifically) and took measures to purge his computer systems of potential spyware that actually worked.

    Interesting side note: Section 31: Control reveals that Terra Prime didn't just intend to hijack the verteron array on Mars and hold United Earth Starfleet Headquarters hostage. They also intended to launch an assault on the United Earth Parliament itself, invading the parliament building and massacring Members of Parliament, alongside attacks on the atmospheric domes of Tycho City on Luna and Utopia Planitia on Mars. I wonder if perhaps in the Places of Exile timeline, those attacks might have been successful?

    Well, I think Star Trek Into Darkness made it clear that Spock Prime was extremely reluctant to reveal anything about events in the prime timeline, even when doing so would be to the benefit of the Kelvin Timeline UFP. Spock Prime seemed to want to do whatever he could to minimize the divergences between the timelines and to allow events to eventually unfold more or less as they had in the prime timeline; I would say that he apparently he still considers himself bound by the Temporal Prime Directive.
     
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  8. DS9Continuing

    DS9Continuing Rear Admiral Rear Admiral

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    And I hope it stays unfinished, as I thought that was a horrendous development and I'm quite glad that the current novelverse seems to have conveniently forgotten it ever happened.

    .
     
  9. Mr. Laser Beam

    Mr. Laser Beam Fleet Admiral Admiral

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    I think you mean A Less Perfect Union... ;)
     
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  10. Nyotarules

    Nyotarules Vice Admiral Moderator

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    Probably did take place, by the 23rd century humans became a planet mainly of racist xenophobic KKK wannabes. Tucker and T'Pol experienced a tragic example of far from improved humanity.
     
    Last edited: Jun 2, 2017
  11. Nyotarules

    Nyotarules Vice Admiral Moderator

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    Not sure how much of a parallel universe he is in, after all the Prime USS Enterprise never discovered the USS Franklin, perhaps another ship did. And nuDavid Marcus birthdate never took place in 2261, maybe he will be like Chekov and have his conception date changed or something. Or he might never be born at all, good thing to since he screwed up the Genesis project.
     
  12. hbquikcomjamesl

    hbquikcomjamesl Rear Admiral Rear Admiral

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    What is it I'm missing here? Could somebody refresh my addled memory? At what point did Picard act against the Federation?
     
  13. Burning Hearts of Qo'nOs

    Burning Hearts of Qo'nOs Commodore Commodore

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    Been a long minute since I read that one, but the dangling thread is the transporter business, correct?
     
  14. Markonian

    Markonian Fleet Admiral Moderator

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    Aye.
     
  15. Burning Hearts of Qo'nOs

    Burning Hearts of Qo'nOs Commodore Commodore

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    I would have completely forgot about that without this thread as a reminder. I can't say that I'm sad that it wasn't followed up, though.
     
  16. Mr. Laser Beam

    Mr. Laser Beam Fleet Admiral Admiral

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    Kirk and Carol didn't like each other at all in STID, so I highly doubt that there will ever be a nuDavid.

    As for Uraei's presence (or lack thereof) in the Less Perfect Union timeline:

    Perhaps Dr. Ikerson simply never created Uraei, or maybe he never existed at all in that timeline. In fact that could even be the true divergence. If there is no Ikerson in this timeline, he never creates Uraei, which won't be around to help neutralize Paxton and his ilk. Assuming Uraei did have a hand in Demons/Terra Prime in the regular timeline, which is certainly possible.
     
    Last edited: Jun 2, 2017
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  17. Jinn

    Jinn Mistress of the Chaotic Energies Rear Admiral

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    I could live with a passing mention that that ship got destroyed and there weren't any survivors.
     
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  18. Burning Hearts of Qo'nOs

    Burning Hearts of Qo'nOs Commodore Commodore

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    Or the only survivor was:

    Pava's double! I could handle having two of her around.
     
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  19. ATimson

    ATimson Rear Admiral Rear Admiral

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    If you have an iPhone, and a PlayStation 4 or a Nintendo Switch... guess what, both your phone & your games consoles run a FreeBSD kernel. Or if you have an Android phone and a Samsung smart TV, they're both running Linux.

    I don't know of any microwaves using Unix-like kernels... yet. :devil: But I'm sure it's only a matter of time.
     
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  20. jaime

    jaime Vice Admiral Admiral

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    https://www.cnet.com/uk/news/japanese-holographic-assistant-brings-us-one-step-closer-to-a-i-butler/

    https://www.kotaku.com.au/2017/05/w...me-not-playing-video-games-on-our-microwaves/